knew of no better alternative. She was the only one to come to 107th Avenue after having a child; she had been where the others were going. I N 1985, six former foster-care recipi- ents between the ages of eIghteen and twenty-one who had been dis- charged to independent living and three recipients currently in group homes who expected to be discharged brought suit against the governor of N ew York, claiming lack of supelVision of those dis- charged and lack of provision of dis- charge plans or transition selVices before discharge for the others. The primary reason for the lawsuit seemed to be that a substantial number of people in home- less shelters had been discharged from foster care. The case resulted in greater attention to preparing older children to live independently upon discharge from foster care and to arrangtng more orderly discharges. Agencies like St. Christo- pher-Ottilie had been providing many such transition selVices but had not been adequately funded for them until the suit was settled, in 1986. Crystal was fortunate. St. Chris- topher's opened an independent-living apartment for two girls in 1987 and a second in 1988. In October of 1988, Crystal applied for admission to an inde- pendent-living apartment. The first ten- ants of the 1987 apartment had recently been evicted for breaking one of the car- dinal independent-living-apartment rules: no overnight guests. During Crystal's second year at Satellite, her at- tendance improved. Students had to sign a contract with each teacher, agreeing to a maximum number of cuts per subject in a cycle; if they exceeded the cuts, they were not given credit for the subject even if they attained a passing grade. In the fall of 1988, CrystaJ took nIght classes at Jamaica High School in two sübjects she had failed the previous year at Satellite- math and English. It seemed that she would be able to graduate in June, 1989, and that presumption was a point in her favor when she was being considered for an independent-living apartment The staff at the group home had always been fond of Crystal-her keen sense of hu- mor and her lack of self-pity were en- dearing qualities that made many adults forgive her temper tantrums, outbursts of obscenity, and selfishness-but as she grew older and became a house leader r--.J -, o Q e · 1 1 (& r " A.. a ,'. . t \. . they worried about the poor example she set the younger gtrls, and thought she should move on. On December 27, 1988, Crystal moved into the independent- living apartment that had been opened the previous year. Her roommate was Benita, an alumna of another St. Chris- topher's group home. The apartment, which was situated in Jamaica, a twenty-minute ride from the 107th Avenue group home, in Qyeens Village, occupied the second floor of a two-family house. It had a separate en- trance on the ground floor and its own staircase. The bedroom was sufficiently large to accommodate twin beds and two dressers; the living room, kitchen, and bathroom were adequate; all the rooms had windows. Crystal and Benita broke the rules of the independent-living apartment at once. Their girlfriends and boyfriends spent the night. No drugs or liquor were allowed on the premises. They drank Absolut vodka and Remy-Martin co- gnac, kept a six-pack of wine coolers in the refrigerator, and smoked reefer. Shortly after moving in, however, Crys- tal did give up crack. When they had been in the apartment a few months, a social worker paid an unscheduled visit, and saw a "roach" (marijuana butt) in an ashtray. Crystal and Benita lied their way out of the situatIon by saying that a girlfrIend had come over and smoked reefer; they claimed they had told her to put it out and she had, but they hadn't dumped the ashtray. The so- cial worker's advice was that if they couldn't keep their com- pany from doing drugs in the apartment they shouldn't have company. "They bought our . story and threatened us with more pop-up visits, but they didn't follow through for a long time," Crystal says. One way an independent-living apartment helped young women make the transition from group-home life to life on their own was by enabling them to save money. Their rent and all utilities were paid, and they had access to a re- volving cash fund of up to two hundred and twenty-five dollars a week. That sum was intended to cover groceries, cleaning supplies, laundry, dry cleaning, transportation to school and work, and such recreational activities as movies. To be reimbursed for their legitimate ex- 77 penses, all they had to do was to produce receipts for the money they had spent. They were also given a clothing allow- ance and an additional montWy stIpend from the state of between twenty and forty dollars a month (twenty dollars at age sixteen, forty at age twenty). The independent-living residents who were employed full time or part time were supposed to show their social workers their paychecks and bank books: they were expected to bank half of their earn- ings and also the stipends. Their sav- ings-some girls left the agency with two or three thousand dollars-might be spent on a month's security deposit and the first month's rent on an apartment after they left the St. Christopher's apartment. Crystal had injured her thumb oper- ating the cash register at her job in the spring of 1988, and had quit during the summer. Her new social worker urged her to get another job. In February of 1989, she found an after-school job at Cheap John's, a store that featured bar- gain goods. ("Five rolls of toilet paper for a dollar," Crystal recalls.) A week or two after she started there, she found more lucrative employment when Furman, a Jamaican with short dreadlocks who supplied Crystal with weed and tried unsuccessfully to date her, offered her five hundred dollars plus expenses to carry half a pound of cocaine to Washington, D.C. All the other girls he had used as couriers had been caught. Furman said he would ac- company her on the first run, on February 21st, to show her what to do. The twenty-first was a Tuesday, so Crystal k 0 went to Satellite, to her four- to-eight job at Cheap John's, fJ/? and to Furman's house to fetch the goods. Following his instruc- tions, she wrapped a Ziploc bag of co- caine in a paper bag, put the paper bag at the bottom of a large Cucci pocketbook she used as a book bag, and covered it with books. They took a cab to Thirty- sixth Street and walked to Penn Sta- tion-Crystal wallung a few steps be- hind Furman. He had given her a hundred and fifty dollars and some in- structions: if he was picked up on the train, she was to take a train back home. He had given her enough money for the return trip. Crystal bought a one-way ticket. They left N ew York on an